Thanks For Ruining April Fools
Damn you all for being such concerned, attentive, good friends.
It would have made for a pretty good April Fool's joke, at least for some of you, if I said nothing about the new job until the end of the month, at which point I was going to put up a blog post about how I got laid off again. But the number of people hassling me with questions like "What's it like being employed again" or "How was the first week?" is getting to be too much.
At least I know I have friends that care about me, so that's always good. I guess.
So, yeah, new job. It feels the same yet different. It didn't take long for me to feel comfortable. Within the first day I was already manipulating reports, playing around with Excel, and trying to see if I could check my email from work. I haven't necessarily been thrown in the fire the first week, but I've been given a couple of projects to work on as soon as the 2nd day. Even with those, I've still had a lot of free time on my hand, but that's slowly dwindling as I get situated.
But it feels different too. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have a career, like I'm a professional. It'll probably feel inconsequential soon enough, but it was kind of surreal walking in the first day and having things like business cards and a laptop. I still have a cubicle, but with a window for the first time ever. That won't last long since we're moving downstairs next month, but then, I'll have my own office, complete with a door. I'm meeting people around the office, and they just don't know who I am, they know why I was brought on and they're excited about it. Once a week I go downtown to Seattle, where I share an office on the 17th floor of a high rise. Of course, another stupid condo is being built, blocking my view of Elliot Bay except for a sliver, but still, that's a sliver of a view that I've never had before. These are perks that many probably take for granted, but for me, it's a sign that I'm finally back on the career path I started planning for myself about 18 months ago.
I try not to feel guilty about where I'm at, given all the gloom and doom lately, and for the most part, I don't. I "put in my dues" over the past 10 months, and I worked my ass off to get to this point. But still, there's thousands of people who are happy taking a cut in pay, in responsibility, in anything, just to make sure they have a paycheck again, and here I am, finding my way into quite possibly the perfect job. Even the commute is manageable. It's 50 minutes back through a section of some of the worst traffic in the country, but it hasn't bothered me yet, and it probably never will. I know what it's like to not have this, I know that what I have now is absolutely great; crawling my way home a couple times a week isn't enough to faze me.
So for all those interested; life is good, for now. It doesn't mean that I'm still not immune to a job loss anymore. If it happens again, c'est la vie. I'm just going to enjoy this as long as I can.
It would have made for a pretty good April Fool's joke, at least for some of you, if I said nothing about the new job until the end of the month, at which point I was going to put up a blog post about how I got laid off again. But the number of people hassling me with questions like "What's it like being employed again" or "How was the first week?" is getting to be too much.
At least I know I have friends that care about me, so that's always good. I guess.
So, yeah, new job. It feels the same yet different. It didn't take long for me to feel comfortable. Within the first day I was already manipulating reports, playing around with Excel, and trying to see if I could check my email from work. I haven't necessarily been thrown in the fire the first week, but I've been given a couple of projects to work on as soon as the 2nd day. Even with those, I've still had a lot of free time on my hand, but that's slowly dwindling as I get situated.
But it feels different too. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have a career, like I'm a professional. It'll probably feel inconsequential soon enough, but it was kind of surreal walking in the first day and having things like business cards and a laptop. I still have a cubicle, but with a window for the first time ever. That won't last long since we're moving downstairs next month, but then, I'll have my own office, complete with a door. I'm meeting people around the office, and they just don't know who I am, they know why I was brought on and they're excited about it. Once a week I go downtown to Seattle, where I share an office on the 17th floor of a high rise. Of course, another stupid condo is being built, blocking my view of Elliot Bay except for a sliver, but still, that's a sliver of a view that I've never had before. These are perks that many probably take for granted, but for me, it's a sign that I'm finally back on the career path I started planning for myself about 18 months ago.
I try not to feel guilty about where I'm at, given all the gloom and doom lately, and for the most part, I don't. I "put in my dues" over the past 10 months, and I worked my ass off to get to this point. But still, there's thousands of people who are happy taking a cut in pay, in responsibility, in anything, just to make sure they have a paycheck again, and here I am, finding my way into quite possibly the perfect job. Even the commute is manageable. It's 50 minutes back through a section of some of the worst traffic in the country, but it hasn't bothered me yet, and it probably never will. I know what it's like to not have this, I know that what I have now is absolutely great; crawling my way home a couple times a week isn't enough to faze me.
So for all those interested; life is good, for now. It doesn't mean that I'm still not immune to a job loss anymore. If it happens again, c'est la vie. I'm just going to enjoy this as long as I can.
posted by Matt at
6:06 PM
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